Dear Councillors,

This is a written update, regarding agenda item 12 (ccNSO Working Group and Committee Updates) on today’s Council agenda. The Council meeting will be held on Thursday, 22 April 2021 at 12 UTC.

MPC Update

Strategy development

Following a call for volunteers at the start of 2021, new members joined the ccNSO Meetings Programme Committee (MPC) and the Committee decided to evaluate its effectiveness and efficiency. The evaluation occurred in various steps, including a SWOT analysis, a game plan, and an impact-effort analysis which is expected to be further addressed and finalised at its next meeting. The MPC identified actions, which should be undertaken to strengthen the purpose and value of the MPC, either by increasing the value of the ccNSO sessions for ccTLD Managers, or by increasing the involvement of the MPC members in the Committee’s activities. The Committee currently meets on a bi-weekly basis.

Meeting planning

The MPC has finalised the ICANN70 Feedback-on-Feedback (see enclosed). This document aims to evaluate the community feedback received regarding the Virtual ccNSO Members meeting at the ICANN70 Community Forum, and provides the feedback from the ccNSO Meetings Programme Committee (MPC) in response.  The MPC also kicked off its planning for the sessions related to the upcoming ICANN71 Policy Forum.

Prior to ICANN71, the following ccNSO sessions will be organised:

• ccTLD News Sessions

There are 2 options to participate: Tuesday, 1 June 2021 | 05:00-06:30 UTC  & Wednesday, 2 June 2021 | 14:00-15:30 UTC. Each of the sessions have a separate agenda.

The MPC currently seeks presenters. The deadline for submitting a proposal is 28 April 2021 (23:59 UTC). Read more about how to apply here.

• ccTLD Community Webinar

There are 2 options to participate: Tuesday, 8 June 2021 (5 UTC) and Wednesday, 9 June 2021 (13 UTC).

During this 1-hour webinar, the ccNSO Council Chair will help you to gain an understanding of the work of the ccNSO, what to expect from the ccNSO at the Virtual ICANN70 community Forum, as well as how ccTLD community representatives can participate in the important work that affects you and your region.

Some highlights of the ccNSO-relevant topics and sessions at ICANN71:

The DNSSEC Workshop and Tech Day are tentatively scheduled for Monday, 14 June.

Moreover, 4 sessions are expected to be held as part of the upcoming ccNSO Members Meeting:

1. ccNSO Governance Session (regarding the ccNSO internal rules),
2. Question and Answer session with ccTLD-related ICANN Board members and others,
3. A session on the external security-related factors that impact ccTLDs,
4. Policy Session (with community awareness raising and consultation regarding ccPDP3 and ccPDP4. Voting regarding ccPDP3-RET is expected to start around ICANN70).

The ccNSO Council will most likely meet on Thursday, 17 June. Finally, a CSC/PTI update to the community is expected to be held as well.

ICANN71 links to bookmark now:

• ccNSO Remote Participation Hub: https://community.icann.org/x/WIG1CQ
• ccNSO Members Meeting, including sessions held prior to ICANN71: https://community.icann.org/x/UYG1CQ
• Tech Day: https://community.icann.org/x/a4G1CQ

The SO/AC leaders kicked off the high-level planning for ICANN71, including max. 3 potential ICANN71 plenary sessions, addressing topics of higher interest to the broader ICANN community. The Governmental Regulatory Developments plenary topic originally scheduled for ICANN70 has been held over to ICANN71, which effectively means that a maximum of two other plenary sessions will be held.  The ccNSO did not submit any plenary session proposals. The SO/AC leaders will continue to discuss the overall high-level planning of ICANN71 during a first production call, which takes places right after today’s ccNSO Council meeting, on 22 April 2021 at 13:30 UTC.

About ICANN71

The Policy Forum is the second Public Meeting in ICANN’s three-meeting annual cycle. The Policy Forum focuses on the policy development work of Supporting Organizations and the advice development work of the Advisory Committees. ICANN's Community Excellence Award for 2021 will be presented at ICANN71: This award recognizes community members who are invested in consensus-based solutions and contribute substantively to the ICANN multistakeholder model. 

• ICANN71 Policy Forum will be held as a Virtual Public Meeting during 14-17 June 2021. Read the announcement here.
• Sessions during ICANN71 will be held during regular working hours in The Hague, Netherlands (CEST / UTC+2, Amsterdam/Paris).
• Prep Week will be held 1-3 June 2021. The Prep Week schedule will be published on 17 May 2021. Register to participate.
• The Policy Forum schedule will be published on 24 May 2021.
• Explore virtual participation tools and download the participation guide here. 
• You must be registered and signed in to view the ICANN71 schedule and participation details.  Sign up today to join us for ICANN71

Thank you.

Best regards,

Joke Braeken

ccNSO Policy Advisor

joke.braeken@icann.org